UNITED NATIONS,
May 31 – On the much discussed
North Korea - US talks, US
President Donald Trump on May
29 tweeted,
"Meetings are currently taking
place concerning Summit, and
more. Kim Young Chol, the Vice
Chairman of North Korea,
heading now to New York." On
May 30 just before 7 pm Kim
Yong Chol and security, as
well as at least one staffer
from the US Mission to the UN,
exited the Millennium Hilton
hotel on 44th Street across
from the UN and piled into a
series of black cars, pursued
by media. See 2 minutes and 20
seconds of Inner City Press'
Periscope feed, here.
They drove to 330 East 38th
Street, the Corinthian
Condominium where many war
crimes linked diplomats have
lived and the US leases a
condo for its deputy
ambassador; they dined for 1
hour and 26 minutes on
"American beef." On May 31
after a two and a half hour
meeting at the Corinthian,
Pompeo held a short press
conference at the Lotte Palace
Hotel at 2:15 pm. Inner City
Press arrived as required at
1:15 pm; there was a full
stand up by Fox then another
cut short by someone's ring
tone. Periscope video here.
Pompeo took four questions
(Bloomberg, WSJ, ABC and Fox)
and was upbeat but declined to
entirely confirm the June 12
talks are on. Why could he, if
another statement like those
on Bolton and Pence could get
it called off again? Looks
like it's a go. Will UN
Secretary General Antonio
Guterres (again out of town
until May 31, when he canceled
the press Q&A he had
scheduled) try to make himself
relevant? Seems not. On travel
ban exemptions, the
UN Security
Council
website as
Inner City
Press exclusively
reported is to
be run by the
"self
employed"
husband of the
chief of staff
of the
Department of
Political
Affairs. The
Dutch have a
role in this
website, DPA
whistleblowers
tell Inner
City Press.
We'll have
more on this.
Back
on May 24 Trump wrote to Kim
Jong Un, "based on the
tremendous anger and open
hostility displayed in your
most recent statement, I feel
it is inappropriate, at this
time, to have this
long-planned meeting."
Simultaneously, UN Secretary
General put out a statement -
praising North Korea for
destruction of an already
played out testing site. The
UN under Guterres remains out
of date, irrelevant and worse.
But on the morning of Saturday
May 26, Trump's spokesperson
Sarah Huckabee Sanders said,
"The White House pre-advance
team for Singapore will leave
as scheduled in order to
prepare should the summit take
place." And just before 9 pm
on May 26, in a White House
event marking the release of a
Utahan from Venezuela, Trump
said:

“We're doing
well on summit with
North Korea..
there's a lot of
good will... if we
can be successful in
de-nuclearization of
the Korean
peninsula. We're
looking at June 12
in Singapore, that
hasn't changed.”

But the UN remains
a place of untransparency. At 3
pm on May 24 Inner City Press
asked the Dutch chair of the
UN's 1718 DPRK sanctions
committee if the exemptions
granted will be rescinded. He
said he would answer later - but
was gone when the UN Spokesman's
Office announced the afternoon's
consultations were over. The
Committee's website lists
exempted correspondent banks but
not travel ban exemptions; the
UN Security Council website as
Inner City Press exclusively
reported is to be run by the
"self employed" husband of the
chief of staff of the Department
of Political Affairs. The Dutch
have a role in this website, DPA
whistleblowers tell Inner City
Press. Dutch Ambassador Karel
van Oosterom pointedly declined
to answer Inner City Press'
question(s) on May 30, here.
We'll have more on this. Watch
this site. Ealier in the day at
the UN Security Council
stakeout, the Dutch deputy
ambassador repeated that it
would be a bumpy road; Sweden's
ambassador said he had just seen
the news. The French Ambassador
Francois Delattre refused to
stop or answer any questions, as
has become more and more
routine. Trump on May 10 had tweeted
"The highly anticipated meeting
between Kim Jong Un and myself
will take place in Singapore on
June 12th." On May 22 North
Korea state media Minju
Joson laid
down this
line: "If
the U.S. and
the South
Korean
authorities
persist in the
confrontation
policy and war
moves against
the DPRK,
oblivious of
this fact,
they will be
held wholly
accountable
for all the
ensuing
consequences.
Dialogue and
saber rattling
can never go
together.”

So the odds now change daily,
and the UN remains marginal at
best. While North Korea said
it was inviting to witness its
destruction of nuclear testing
site at Punggye-ri from May 23
to 25 media from South Korea,
the United States, China,
Russia and the UK, it gave no
response to South Korea's
transmission of the names of
journalists. Hope springs
eternal: the South Korean
journalists nevertheless took
off for Beijing, intent in
re-transmitting their names.
From there a Unification
Ministry official said, "We
tried to convey the list
through the Panmunjom
communication channel at 9
a.m. today, but the North
declined to accept it."
The South Korean journalists
were left behind in Beijing by
the others, then themselves
left. Now this, from South
Korea's Unificatin Ministry: We
delivered a
list of eight
reporters from
two outlets to
the North
today, and the
North accepted
it." Watch
this site.
Marginal UN's Secretary
General Antonio Guterres,
refusing on the record, had a
lunch with his favored
correspondents on May 21, with
wine; nothing emerged and
Guterres was reportedly not
not asked about UN corruption,
the China Energy Fund
Committee bribery case, sexual
harassment cover ups at
UNAIDS, UNESCO and as is
relevant here the IAEA or his
continuing restriction on the
Press which reports on them.
Meanwhile Japanese media reach
out to Inner City Press about
its UN corruption exclusives,
while slowest and most right
wing Sankei Shimbun writes
derivativesly about Santa Fe,
Texas. Second tier. On US talk
show Fox News Sunday, South
Carolina Senator Lindsey
Graham said “If they don't
show up, it means diplomacy is
over. If they do show up and
try to play Trump, it means
military conflict is the other
way forward... One way or the
other it's going to be over by
2020.” On May 18, Inner City
Press asked the Chair of the
UN Security Council's 1718
DPRK (North Korea) sanctions
committee Karel van Oosterom
if his Committee has received
ay request for sanctions
exemptions or waivers for the
June 12 talks; he indicated
No: "the members of the
Committee have not received
such a request." Vine video here.
This was in a loud press
gaggle after the Committee met
with the UK's Ambassador to
Pyongyang, after a similar
meeting with Russia's
ambassador there. (The UN is
using a little known Russian
correspondent bank, which self
reportedly had the wrong
people negotiate the
arrangement, as Inner City
Press exclusively reported).
Those covering the meeting
nearly entirely worked for
Japanese media, see below.
Inner City Press previously
asked UN Secretary General
Antonio Guterres' spokesman
Stephane Dujarric if it would
play any role - no answer -
and on May 9 asked him if the
UN had played any role at all
in the release of the three
American hostages by North
Korea earlier in the day. No,
Dujarric said, before laughing
after a Press question about
hindered humanitarian aid and
calling Inner City Press
"self-centered." Video here.
On May 16, North Korea's first
vice minister for foreign
affairs Kim Kye Gwan issued a
statement further calling the
talks into question. Guterres,
holding a press encounter in
Brussels as he rarely does in
New York, said he hopes common
sense prevails. Inner City
Press asked his deputy
spokesman Farhan Haq, video here, UN transcript here:
Inner City Press: does
he believe, it seems like the
snags are based on a couple of
things, one having to do with
this Max Thunder military
exercise, and that's the basis
on which North Korea said the
DPRK [Democratic People’s
Republic of Korea] cancelled
the meeting with South Korea
and more recently they focused
on some comments by the new
[United States] National
Security Advisor analogizing
North Korea to Libya.
So, I'm just wondering,
particularly as to the
military exercises, does he
think this is the right
time? Does he think
there should be some meeting
halfway or is he just hoping
that it works out?

Deputy Spokesman: We
believe that the parties
involved know what their
concerns are. And, like
the Secretary-General said, he
believes that common sense
will prevail. He does
regret that the inter-Korean
meeting was cancelled, but he
hopes the discussion will
resume." The UN under Guterres
is becoming ever more
marginal. On May 15,
Kim's state media KCNA cited
the joint US - South Korea
military exercised somewhat
absurdly called Max Thunder as
an “exercise targeting us,
which is being carried out
across South Korea, is a
flagrant challenge to the
Panmunjom Declaration and an
intentional military
provocation running counter to
the positive political
development on the Korean
Peninsula.The United States
will also have to undertake
careful deliberations about
the fate of the planned North
Korea-U.S. summit in light of
this provocative military
ruckus jointly conducted with
the South Korean authorities.”
At the UN Security Council
stakeout on the afternoon of
May 15, Sweden's Permanent
Representative Olof B. Skoog
said had yet to hear of this
development; the Dutch chair
of the Council's North Korea
1718 sanctions committee went
into the Council's meetings,
on Somalia and Abyei, without
stopping to spek with the
press. Back on May 12, KCNA
announced that North Korea's
"Nuclear Weapon Institute and
other concerned institutions
are taking technical measures
for dismantling the northern
nuclear test ground ... in
order to ensure transparency
of discontinuance of the
nuclear test." Media from five
countries - including the UK
but not Japan - were invited.
Japan's right wing Sankei
Shimbun, which routinely
misses North Korea news at the
UN in favor of problematic
fluff about Kanye West and its
reporter Mayu Uetsuka's
laundry and jogging in the
park, snarked that "The
dismantling of
the nuclear
test site may
just be
another
theatrical
performance to
the outside
world... It
seems that North Korea wants
foreign currency under the
premise of inviting foreign
media." But now an expert opines
that "only four media (two US
TV, one ROK TV, one ROK text)
100% confirmed going to North
Korea to observe demolition of
Pyungye-ri. Many media invited
have had invites rescinded
with no real reason given." So
does Sankei stand by its
statement this is all about
getting foreign currency?
Trump back on May 8 while
withdrawing from the Iran Deal
announced that Mike Pompeo was
on his way to North Korea and
would be there in an hour's
time. Trump said he was
hopeful the US hostages would
be released and that
withdrawal from the Iran Deal
would make America safer.
Meanwhile Kim Jong Un has
flown to the Chinese city of
Dalian and met Xi Jiping.
Along with a seaside walk, the
talk was of synchronized and
mutual steps with the US,
probably not what Trump wants
to hear. South Korea's Yonhap
and Chosun have both reported
the talks will take place in
Singapore in the June, most
probably the third week in
June. It is noted that Trump
often reverses course - it
could be earlier, in the DMZ
in Panmunjom, or even not at
all, depending on how the
meeting is pre-spun. Either
way, it seems the UN remains
on the sidelines, despite
intermittent claims of
relevance from UN Secretary
General Antonio Guterres and
his yet to be seen new head of
the Department of Political
Affairs. Inner City Press,
which previously shared a UN office
with Chosun Ilbo prior to
being evicted
for exposing the UN's bribery
by Ng Lap Seng and now Patrick
Ho, was told she'd start on
May 1. Also as the Trump - Kim
talks approach, the
constellation of those
opposing or seeking to
undercut them extends from
self-styled diplomatic experts
in Washington to decadent and
ill-informed pro-Abe Japanese
scribes in New York. The
former include politicians who
while first claiming diplomacy
was being killed now say it it
moving too fast. The latter
published, in Sankei Shimbun
alone, two separate stories
about the May 3 event at the
UN in which as Inner City
Press reported
amid other news a professor
from Tufts University said
Japan's colonial rule of Korea
was better than that of the
Kims. Of this, Sankei's Mayu
Uetsuka who was not even there
wrote that “Mr. Kaichiro
Iizuka (41), the eldest son of
Mr. Yaeko Taguchi (62) = Same
(22) =, said the mother was
one year old when she was
kidnapped, "I have no memory
of touching my mother ". While
attention is being paid to
nuclear and missile issues, he
said, 'Do not forget the
abduction issue that human
beings are being threatened,
human lives should not be
lighter than nuclear weapons
and missiles.'” Meanwhile the
same Uetsuka, unconcerned with
human lives other than her
own, bragged
about renting an apartment on
the Upper West Side there is
no washing machine in the
room. At first I was looking
for a property with "washing
machine" at the rental site,
but I could not find it in the
desired area in the budget.
New York has many old
buildings, so there are no
washing machines only about
30% of the property. Piping
around the water is not in
place, it is also difficult to
purchase and install a washing
machine yourself. There is a
laundry room in the building
and it will be shared with
neighbors. From friends, I
heard that there are some
Americans who are washing
shoes and they snatch, but
they will have to get used to
it. In the life of the United
States, insensitive dullness
which does not care a little
is trained. The room I live in
is also puzzled by the
appearance of the next
apartment from the window, but
it gradually ceased to matter.
Let's start a jog at Central
Park for a diet.” No, it's
time to be replaced, putting
out for old reports, throwing
away real information for a
self-promoting bartender
typist, on May 30 typing slews
of quotes about Gaza seemingly
not to be used: Kevin Pinner,
claiming he “named products,
generated slogans and ideas
for marketing campaigns” for
Chinavision. Oh
for the days
of Jun
Kurosawa, who
at least
pursued the
attempted
censorship of
Mr Tatsuya
Kato (and
Gaza). These
days Pinner sits elsewhere in
the bullpen, ordered to type
information that Sankei will
never publish, on May 24 on
Burundi and Lebanon; Mayu
Uetsuka most recently tried to
promote
New York ads for Hitachi,
Panasonic, Shimizu
Corporation, and Daikin
Industries. She was not
present on May 17; no question
about Sankei's dubious story
about South Korean ship to
ship transfers with DPRK ships
was asked. Tellingly, even
after sitting on the ground at
the stakeout, Sankei's Gaza
articles were by Mina Mina (or
Mina Mitsui), Takao Sato in
Jerusalem and in DC, Hiroyuki
Kano still running interviews
which while interesting are
from April: more than two
months before. To complain
about media critique? We will
have more on this.

***

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